1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information providing methods and systems, particularly to those used in an information providing system consisting of information providing servers for providing information; information terminals for requesting, receiving, and displaying information; and communication means such as a computer network for connecting these servers and terminals, and in which an information terminal requests an information providing server to provide an information item requested by a user, and the information providing server sends back the information item. Specifically, the present invention relates to a system for providing information using the so-called "WWW" (World Wide Web) function of the Internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 16 shows an example construction in conventional systems. The system shown in the figure consists of at least one information terminal, here, information terminals 11A, 11B, and 11C; at least one information providing server, here, information servers 13A and 13B; and information storage devices 14A and 14B for storing information provided by the information providing servers. In the information storage devices 14A and 14B, plural information items a; b; c, and d; e; f, and the like are stored.
Hereinbelow, the operations of the conventional system will be explained with reference to the sequence chart shown in FIG. 17. Here, it is assumed that the "user" in the following explanation uses information terminal 11A and the server which responds to an information request from the terminal 11A is 13A.
Step S21: The user chooses information (item) c, which the user would like to get next, based on anchor information included in information displayed on information terminal 11A, by using an input device such as a mouse. Here, "anchor information" is visible information (on the display) which functions as a clue for a user to choose an information item. PA1 Step S22: Information terminal 11A analyzes link information appended to the anchor information, so as to acquire the information c which was chosen by the user. Here, "link information" belongs to the system side, and is invisible information which indicates where the relevant information is stored. PA1 Step S23: Information terminal 11A requests the information providing server to provide information c, based on the analyzed link information. PA1 Step S24: The information providing server 13A receives name (data) "c" of the information requested by information terminal 11A, via computer network 12. PA1 Step S25: The information providing server 13A searches storage device 14A for information c which corresponds to the request, and reads out the information. PA1 Step S26: The information providing server 13A sends information c to information terminal 11A via computer network 12. PA1 Step S27: Information terminal 11A receives the information from the information providing server. PA1 (i) preparing information modification rules in which plural classes indicating characteristics of users are determined; then, regarding at least one information item, identification information with respect to the information item and one of the at least one server which stores the information item is assigned to one of the classes; a more suitable information item is determined as a modified information item with respect to the assigned information item, the modified information item being used when the assigned information item is chosen by a user who belongs to the relevant class; and identification information with respect to the modified information item and one of the at least one server which stores the modified information item are registered; PA1 (ii) providing an information modifying and providing server which performs information provision control with reference to the modification rules; and PA1 (iii) in the information modifying and providing server, when a first server of the at least one server provides a first information item to one of the at least one information terminal and the information terminal request a second information item relating to the first information item, judging whether or not the modified information item with respect to the second information item exists in the information modification rules; if the modified information item does not exist, sending an information request to one of the at least one server which stores the second information item to send back the second information item to the information modifying and providing server; if the modified information item exist, sending an information request to one of at least one server which stores the modified information item to send back the modified information item to the information modifying and providing server; and providing the sent-back information item to the information terminal which requested information. PA1 (1) a storage medium storing a computer program which making a computer execute the above method, and PA1 (2) an information providing system corresponding to the above method. PA1 (i) memory means for storing information modification rules in which plural classes indicating characteristics of users are determined; then, regarding at least one information item, identification information with respect to the information item and one of the at least one server which stores the information item is assigned to one of the classes; a more suitable information item is determined as a modified information item with respect to the assigned information item, the modified information item being used when the assigned information item is chosen by a user who belongs to the relevant class; and identification information with respect to the modified information item and one of the at least one server which stores the modified information item are registered; and PA1 (ii) an information modifying and providing server which performs information provision control with reference to the modification rules stored in the memory means. PA1 (i) request receiving means for receiving an information request from one of the at least one information terminal, the request being issued when a first server of the at least one server provides a first information item to the information terminal, and the request having a demand for a second information item relating to the first information item; PA1 (ii) judging means for judging whether or not the modified information item with respect to the second information item exists in the information modification rules; PA1 (iii) information acquiring means for sending an information request to one of the at least one server which stores the second information item to acquire the second information item if the modified information item does not exist, and for sending an information request to one of the at least one server which stores the modified information item to acquire the modified information item if the modified information item exists; and PA1 (iv) sending means for providing the information item acquired by the information acquiring means to the information terminal which requested information.
By repeating the above steps, various information items are provided from the information providing server to the information terminal.
The flow in which a user receives information in the case of using such a information providing system will be briefly explained with reference to FIG. 18. FIG. 18 shows a conventional-type transition route with respect to information items which a user can acquire, and reference numeral 31 indicates a screen image displayed on the information terminal, which includes an anchor-displaying part 32 which indicates the existence of anchor information.
Here, it is assumed that information (item) a is now displayed on information terminal 11. Generally, on the screen of the information terminal, underlined anchor information is displayed as shown in FIG. 18, while link information is not displayed. The user can, in the present initial stage, choose information b or d which the user can acquire next, according to the underlined part in information a. If the user choose information b, information terminal 11 analyzes link information appended to the anchor information, and requests an information providing server which stores information b to provide the information. Next, information terminal 11 receives information b, whereby the user enters a new state in which the user can choose information e. By repeating the above operation, the user can successively acquire various information items which relate to a part of information shown on the screen of the terminal, without being aware of which information providing server (which is connected to the terminal via a computer network and the like) stores the chosen information.
Additionally, in the case in which an information provider, who constructs such an information providing system, prepares information, it is possible to efficiently provide an information providing system including a vast amount of information by including information with respect to the information stored by another information providing server into the relevant link information. As described above, such an information providing service has excellent characteristics for expansion of the system. Therefore, many information providing servers which provide information having similar formats exist using the present computer networks.
However, this conventional method also has a problem. When a user starts to acquire information with information (item) a as a starting point, the user can only make the transition to information b or d. However, regarding the user's object of acquiring information, or the user's level of understanding of each information item, it may be preferable to take another transition route to information e by skipping information b, or another transition route to information c before acquiring information d. In such cases, unless the content of information a is changed, an information providing system in which a user can directly make the transition to information e or c cannot be realized. However, generally, only the information provider of the information providing server (13A) which contains the relevant information (a) can perform such a change. Furthermore, even if the content of information a could be changed, There still occurs an problem in that each user cannot have an individual transition route for information acquisition.
For example, if it is assumed that information providing servers 13A and 13B (as shown in FIG. 16) are the "WWW" servers in the Internet, information (items a; b; c, and d; e; f) which can be provided from each server and possible routes for the provision (e.g., from "a" to "b" or "c") are previously determined. Here, when a user as a client requests information a from server 13A, the content of information a is not always suitable for the understanding level of the user. Even if information suitable for this user is information b which is positioned below information a, or is another information existing in another server (13B), such information is not automatically provided to the user. In this case, the user is simply confused after acquiring information which is hard to understand for this user.